Use of Surface Observations to Estimate Upper Air Humidity for the Objective Analysis of Relative Humidity over Indian Region

In the present study objective analyses of relative humidity (RH) at surface and at the levels of 850, 700 and 500 hPa have been made using Gandin's (1963) optimum interpolation scheme. As the horizontal resolution of the radiosonde stations is rather inadequate for upper air humidity analysis, a scheme has been developed, following Rasmussen (1982) to estimate the upper air RH from the surface observations like surface RH, present weather and cloud cover. The relative humidities at the levels 850, 700 and 500 hPa were related to the surface observations through three separate regression relations. The RH values at 850, 700 and 500 hPa levels were estimated from the surface RH, cloud coverage and present weather using the above regression relations and subsequently the objective analyses at 00 GMT for the period from 4 July to 8 July 1979, were made using these estimated data along with the observed radiosonde data. Objective analyses were also made for the same period using only the radiosonde data for comparison to study the impact of those estimated data. Root mean square errors were computed for all the five days by interpolating RH at the observing stations from the objectively analysed field and comparing them with the actually observed RH to examine how best the analyses (with and without estimated data) fitted the observations. Lastly they were compared with satellite cloud pictures. This study shows that the estimated upper air RH values have positive impact on the analysis of upper air RH and could be used over radiosonde data sparse region and even over oceanic regions.

Construction of Vertical Wind Profile from Satellite-Derived Winds for Objective Analysis of Wind Field

During summer Monex-79, a variety of observing systems viz. research ships, research aircrafts, constant pressure balloons and geostationary satellite etc. were deployed, besides the regular conventional observations. The purpose of these additional systems was to make the best possible data for the studies on various aspects of monsoon circulation. The present study is aimed at the construction of vertical wind profile using cloud motion vectors obtained from GOES (I-O) satellite and to examine whether the constructed wind profiles improves the representation of the monsoon system, flow pattern etc. in the objective analysis. For this purpose, climatological normals of the wind field are considered as the initial guess and the objective analyses of the wind field are made with, first using only data from conventional observations over land areas, subsequently including the constructed winds from cloud motion vectors. These analyses are then compared with the standard analyses of wind field obtained from Quick Look Atlas by T. N. Krishnamurti et al. (1979).It is inferred that satellite estimated mean wind profiles show good agreement with the mean wind profiles of the research ships with RMS errors less than 5 mps below 500 hPa and less than 8 mps above 500 hPa. It is further inferred that the inclusion of constructed winds shows a positive impact on the objective analysis and improvement is seen to be more marked in the data-sparse region of the Arabian sea. Analyses which include the constructed winds show better agreement with the standard analysis, than the analyses obtained using only conventional winds. Thus, results of our study suggest that the wind profiles constructed using cloud motion vectors are of potential use in objective analysis to depict the major circulation features over the Indian region.

Review of global neurosurgery education: Horizon of Neurosurgery in the Developing Countries

Globally,the discipline of neurosurgery has evolved remarkably fast.Despite being one of the latest medical specialties,which appeared only around hundred years ago,it has witnessed innovations in the aspects of diagnostics methods,macro and micro surgical techniques,and treatment modalities.Unfortunately,this development is not evenly distributed between developed and developing countries.The same is the case with neurosurgical education and training,which developed from only traditional apprentice programs in the past to more structured,competencebased programs with various teaching methods being utilized,in recent times.A similar gap can be observed between developed and developing counties when it comes to neurosurgical education.Fortunately,most of the scholars working in this field do understand the coherent relationship between neurosurgical education and neurosurgical practice.In context to this understanding,a symposium was organized during the World Federation of Neurological Surgeons(WFNS)Special World Congress Beijing 2019.This symposium was the brain child of Prof.Yoko Kato-one of the eminent leaders in neurosurgery and an inspiration for female neurosurgeons.Invited speakers from different continents presented the stages of development of neurosurgical education in their respective countries.This paper summarizes the outcome of these presentations,with particular emphasis on and the challenges faced by developing countries in terms of neurosurgical education and strategies to cope with these challenges.